4 Winter Skills You Need to Know

Admit it: You usually turn to Google when you encounter a problem you can’t solve. But relying on the Internet to bail out your butt can be dicey when you’re in spots with wonky wi-fi—like a hiking trail or secluded winter cabin in the woods.

So heed the advice of Davey Warner, Associate Director of Program for the Boy Scouts of America’s Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Ely, Minnesota, where Scouts camp and hike in temperatures that sink to 45 degrees below zero.

First things first: If you’re trekking in subzero temps, you should focus on dressing appropriately rather than building fires, Warner says.

If you can feel a fire’s heat, it means you’re not wearing enough layers. But if you’re looking for light—or want to impress your female companions—start with dryer lint, which surprisingly makes for great tinder. If you don’t have any handy, grab small, dry twigs or wood shavings.

Now gather some kindling—twigs you can break with your hands—and fashion a teepee over the tinder. Next, gather logs smaller than your wrist that are dead, but not rotten. Construct a teepee over the kindling. Light the tinder in several spots, and the whole teepee should go up.

If it’s wet out, Warner says to use birch bark as tinder because it exudes an oil that will burn in all conditions. Otherwise, try finding materials at the base of pine trees, which tend to be drier than the surroundings.

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Chop Wood

Build enough fires and you’ll need more firewood. Warner says the safest way to do this is to use your axe or hatchet head like a wedge, put it on the top of the log, and pound it in with another log. But that’s not as cool as swinging an axe, right?

To truly chop wood, start with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the axe out straight and setting the head on the middle of the log—this way you know where it’s going to fall. Now hold the axe up vertically, with your dominant hand near the end of the handle and your other hand closer to the head.

Let the axehead fall, sliding your hand down the handle, away from the head as it drops onto the log. When the axe head sinks into the log, twist the handle slightly to make the split.

Warner’s top tip: Rely on the axe. “Let the weight of the tool do the work, and you can do it all day,” he says. “When guys try to swing the tool, they wear themselves out really quickly.”

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Jumpstart a Car

In Ely, Warner and his crew sometimes jump 50 cars that go kaput in a single weekend.

First, make sure you know where your battery is located—in most cars, it’s under the hood—and always store jumper cables in the trunk. Get a friend’s car and leave it running. Connect one of the red cables to the positive post on the dead car. (Remember: “read-dead.”)

Next, connect the other red cable to the positive post on the battery of the running car. Now join the black cable to the running car’s negative post.

Finally, link the other end of the black cable to a piece of clean, solid metal on the dead car or to the battery’s negative post. You should be able to start your car.

Disconnect the cables in the reverse order you attached them, ending with the red cable of the formerly dead car. Don’t shut it off again without driving around for at least 30 minutes to build up some charge.

This isn’t something you’ll need to do every day—or hopefully ever. But should the situation arise, here’s your plan of action: Try finding a tree branch or pole you can reach out for the person to grab.

If that isn’t an option, cap a water bottle, tie some rope to it, and throw that out—it will float, and you and your friends can pull the sinker to safety.

If neither of these are possible, form a human chain with whoever is around to extend out, with the understanding that more ice will break around the initial hole. Again, this is a very last resort.

If you’re the one who falls through the ice, the first thing to do is calm down. “The instinct is to panic and start flailing,” Warner says. “But if you resist, you’ll actually be more functional in a matter of seconds.”

The simple tip: Turn around. You came from solid ice—now work back to it.

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